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Algorhythm

"The Contingency EP" (No Logo)

Other People's Money
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The amount of cutting-edge electronic music coming out of Cleveland is at an all-time high, so it's no surprise that young producers like Algorhythm are sprouting up. But "The Contingency EP," the Akron native's debut release, owes a lot more to experimental electronica's innovators than it does to the rest of the heads around town.

In order to approximate one of Amon Tobin's rhythmic ballets, Algorhythm replaces his dusty jazz samples with a broad palette of electronic signal snippets on "Immanence." On "Phahkt," he forges metallic clangs, stabs of digital static, and staple breakbeats into neck-snapping rhythms, aping Panacea's industrial-strength style. Once everything is in place, he starts channeling Squarepusher. "Random Collocation" unfolds like one of Mick Harris's pieces of tonal ambience, then devolves into a queasy brain-bender that Aphex Twin might have concocted.

Algorhythm's tastes are superb. If he can inject a little more of his own style into his mix of influences, he might really be onto something.